Japan Coast Guard plane wasn't cleared to enter runway before fatal JAL collision

Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The Japan Transport Ministry said on Wednesday that a Coast Guard plane that collided with the Japan Airlines plane on Tuesday did not have permission to enter the runway, according to flight control communications.

Toshiyuki Onuma, senior deputy director general of Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau, said no one could find clear evidence of the Coast Guard plane receiving clearance despite its pilot's insistence that he did receive it.

"There was nothing that can be regarded as permission to enter the runway [for the Coast Guard plane] in the transcript of the communications," Onuma said in a news briefing.

The collision on the runway of the two planes where the Coast Guard plane was attempting to take off while the passenger jet was landing killed five Coast Guard members. The pilot survived.

A Coast Guard official at the same news briefing admitted that there appeared to be a conflict between what its pilot was saying and the communications data. The official added the Coast Guard would cooperate with investigations by the Japan Transport Safety Board and police.

An air traffic controller told the Coast Guard aircraft right before the crash on Tuesday afternoon, "Please drive on the ground to the runway stop position C5."

The Coast Guard aircraft responded: "We are heading to the runway stop position C5."

The ministry said that was the last communication with Coast Guard aircraft until the crash where it entered the runway.

The air traffic communication will be part of the Japan Transport Safety Board investigation, which launched on Wednesday.

The agency said it had inspected the scene of the incident at Tokyo's Haneda International Airport and had the flight and voice recorders of the Coast Guard plane but was still looking for the components of the passenger plane which burst into flames on the runway.

Safety board officials said the investigation will focus on the instructions given by air traffic controllers to pilots before the crash.

"We cannot give a clear answer at this time as to why they collided," said Takuya Fujiwara, an aviation accident investigator. "We will investigate what we can and finalize our report."

Meanwhile, JAL officials told reporters that they understood the JAL Airbus A350 "had received permission to land."

The Metropolitan Police in Tokyo also inspected the scene as part of its own probe in connection with the charge of suspicion of professional negligence.

Five of the six Coast Guard crew members, who were delivering relief goods to the earthquake-affected area of Ishikawa, were killed in the crash. All 367 passengers and 12 crew members, though, managed to escape with serious injury from the JAL carrier.